Joined IDSA

Expertise

Education

PhD in West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Background

He completed his doctoral thesis on Human Rights in Islam: The Case of Saudi Arabia in 2007. Before joining the Institute, he worked as a Research Associate at the Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi, from December 2006 till June 2008.

Select Publications

The GCC-Iran Conflict and its Implications for the Gulf Region, Strategic Analysis, Volume-35, No-2, March 2011.

Despite political differences over regional issues, India and Saudi Arabia are intensifying cooperation on issues of mutual interest such as terrorism, piracy, security cooperation, and intelligence sharing.

The West Asian region is undergoing a phase of massive turbulence since the outbreak of the Arab Spring. This period has been marked by popular protests, internal conflicts, civil wars, military interventions and involvement of external players. The regional security situation remains fragile with a new terrorist entity, the Islamic State, emerging to challenge the existing geographical boundaries of the region. There has been an enormous increase in terrorism and extremism, and the non-state actors have gained significant influence in regional politics.

Egypt under President Gamal Abdel Nasser and India under the leadership of its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were the torchbearers of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Their commitment to socialism also kept both the leaders and countries drawn towards each other.

Saudi Arabia has joined the war against the IS and it supports more boots on the ground to tackle this challenge. Although it is employing all the options available to it, the success of anti-IS operations depends to a significant extent on the ground situation in Syria and Iraq.

The aspirations of the youth who protested at the Tahrir Square, the next course of action for the Muslim Brotherhood, the participation of other Islamists in the forthcoming elections and the role of military in the Sisi regime are some of the important issues which need to be resolved for the stability of the country.

India-GCC relationship is growing stronger by the day as both realise the potential and importance of each other. Trade and commerce is the most important pillar of the India-GCC relationship. Success of high volume of trade and commerce between India and GCC revolves around a high degree of trade and economic complementarity as both caters to each other's economic demands.